There's Noh doubt about first victory

AS SEUNG-YUL NOH exhaled and tilted his head back in a skyward gaze on the 18th green, follow South Korean players Y.E. Yang and Charlie Wi charged toward him, spraying him with bottled beer.

Noh smiled, removed his hat, held both arms out and soaked it all in.

The 22-year-old overcame windy conditions and the pressure that goes with attempting to secure a maiden PGA Tour triumph, shooting a 1-under 71 yesterday to win the Zurich Classic in Avondale, La., at 19-under 271.

He also knew he achieved another goal of providing some joy to a nation that has been reeling since a passenger ferry capsized April 16, leaving 300 missing or dead.

Noh wore black and yellow ribbons on his white golf hat to honor victims.

"Very challenging today out there, especially playing with Keegan [Bradley], a major champion, and heavy wind," Noh said.

While Noh, the leader through three rounds, never fell out of first, he did make his first three bogeys of the tournament and briefly fell into a tie with Bradley, the 2011 PGA Championship winner who had the gallery behind him.

But Bradley did himself in with a bogey on the fifth hole and a triple bogey on the sixth. He finished tied for eighth at 13-under 275.

Andrew Svoboda and Robert Streb tied for second at 17-under 271.

* At Daly City, Calif., Lydia Ko birdied the final hole for her third LPGA Tour victory and first as a professional, holding off Stacy Lewis and Jenny Shin in the inaugural Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic.

It went down to the final shots, and the poised teen made a 5-foot birdie putt moments before Lewis knocked in a birdie of her own to finish one stroke back. Ko shot a final-round 69 to finish at 12-under 276. Lewis, who shot a 71, placed second, one shot back. Shin (69), finished third, two back.

Dutchwoman Dewi Claire Schreefel, 28, won $100,000 for her hole-in-one at the 157-yard 12th hole with a 7-iron.